Much as Empire loves it, it was highly unlikely that 18 rated horror film The Descent was ever going to steal the thunder of one of this summer's hugies.

Neil Marshall's cave diving terror has fought the good fight to amass £570,850 on its opening weekend, landing it solidly in third place at the UK box office. It finished more than a hundred grand in front of its nearest competitor, Mr And Mrs Smith, who managed to take an additional £476,040 in their fifth week, bringing their total purse to £12,541,517. That, for those who ponder why stars get paid so much, is where casting Brad Pitt opposite Angelina Jolie will get you. Of course the fact that it's a good film won't hurt, either.

In second place, Batman Begins continued to draw the public in, to the tune of £782,152 in week number four. It has so far recouped £13,871,254 for Warner Brothers, but is showing signs of slowing – especially if you consider that it took its money from 461 screens (an average of £1,697 per theatre), while The Descent ran through 329 projectors (a per screen average of £1,735). But then, those three extra weeks Batman has been on is a long time in the world of distribution. In other words, let's see how well The Descent's doing in a month's time.

The grand pooh-bah for another weekend was of course War Of The Worlds, which you really didn't need to cross our collective palm with silver for us to tell you. Even with a sizeable drop-off of 51% from opening weekend, Spielberg's little effort has brought in a whopping £4,219,120, meaning that all 506 screens it's been playing on across the country have been crowded houses (no pun intended), with a per screen average of £8,338. WOW, indeed.

-51% seemed to be the number of the week, also being the exact amount to affect Revenge Of The Sith (total box office now standing at £38,877,900) and A Lot Like Love (£1,280,361). Elsewhere, Kung Fu Hustle continues to do well in eighth spot, just above Sin City still hanging in there after six weeks, with a healthy £6,911,294 total.